PLAYOFF FORMAT
CHANGE FOR HIGH SCHOOLS

Grouping by strength instead of enrollment

New ballgame

What: High school teams in some sports will be grouped in playoff divisions according to competitive strength instead of school enrollment.

Who: The San Diego Section Board of Managers approved the plan Wednesday.

When: Baseball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse will operate under the new format this spring.

Cathedral Catholic, shown competing in the girls volleyball state final, will move from Division III to Division I and most likely to the Open Division eventually. The Dons have won four state titles in the past five years. Hayne Palmour IV • U-T

+Read Caption

Cathedral Catholic, shown competing in the girls volleyball state final, will move from Division III to Division I and most likely to the Open Division eventually. The Dons have won four state titles in the past five years. Hayne Palmour IV • U-T

After 52 years of existence, the San Diego Section has dramatically changed the way it will conduct high school playoffs.

Seven sports will no longer compete in divisions based on school enrollment. Instead, playoff teams will be grouped according to strength of program.

The section’s Board of Managers overwhelmingly approved the plan by a voice vote Wednesday morning. The idea has been in the works for the last 18 months, almost the entire time Jerry Schniepp has been the section’s fifth commissioner.

“This is the right thing for the section,” Schniepp said. “I think after the vote here a vast majority see it as a good thing, too.”

A mathematical formula that includes teams’ records, their ranking in the state, playoff appearances and opponents’ records will determine the division in which schools are placed.

A new eight-team Open Division was created in each sport in addition to the existing divisions. All eight teams in the Open Division advance to the playoffs.

The other divisions all have 12 teams advancing to the postseason except for Division V, which will have eight teams in the playoffs.

The Open Division champion, according to Schniepp, will be designated as the section champion. The other winners will simply be called division winners.

Several of the California Interscholastic Federation’s 10 sections have similar setups.

The new format will swing into action this spring for baseball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse. Football and girls volleyball will go to the new system in the fall followed by boys and girls basketball next winter.

Other team sports — boys and girls soccer, field hockey and boys and girls water polo — also could be included if a credible system of ranking teams can be found. For now, those sports will stay in enrollment-based divisions.

Mostly individual sports such as boys and girls cross country, boys and girls golf, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls track, boys and girls swimming, gymnastics and wrestling will continue to compete in divisions based on enrollment.

“This whole thing is great for the best teams to be competing against the best,” Schniepp said. “It’s great for the other teams not in the Open Division because they will now be competing against programs just like them.”

Citing a need to change the postseason format after discovering that too few schools were winning a major portion of the section championships, Schniepp and the merged Private-Public Committee and the Playoff Committee set out to involve more schools in the section championships.

Last year for instance, five schools — La Costa Canyon, Torrey Pines, Cathedral Catholic, Coronado and La Jolla Country Day — won 48 percent of the section titles.

For the immediate future, winning section championships will probably mean your team will move up to the next toughest division the following year based on weighted results.

The most recent season counts more toward the formula for determining divisions with each earlier season counting a little less as you move further away from the present.

“This is really important and really impactful in a positive way,” Schniepp said. “I don’t want to say it’s monumental. That will be for other people to decide.

“The biggest complaint we heard was that we were watering down the playoffs by lumping all the best teams in one division. We also heard from teams who said they wouldn’t win any CIFs now.”

Bruce Ward, director of PE, health and athletics for the San Diego school district, played football at Kearny under the old system but is willing to give the new plan a try.

“There are always going to be negatives and positives,” Ward said. “We voted to approve the opportunity to see if this actually works.”

Cathedral Catholic Athletic Director Dave Smola, whose teams will be moving up the maximum number of divisions to Division I in most sports, is fine with the new plan. He is planning to appeal to move up even higher.

“Look at the large numbers of big schools that can’t compete,” Smola said. “Schools are changing and we have to change, too.”

Joe Evangelista, athletic director at Calexico, believes teams from the Imperial Valley have just improved their playoff chances.

“We’re thrilled,” Evangelista said. “It will be a work in progress, but we feel our chances of getting to the playoffs and winning first-round games are much better now.”

Not everyone likes the new system.

Former section Assistant Commissioner Bill McLaughlin, who is now the chief compliance officer for the Sweetwater school district, cast one of the few negative votes.

“Our district has concerns that concessions are being made and that teams from the Open Division could elect to come back to their original division for state playoff considerations and the team that wins that division title could get bumped out,” McLaughlin said. “That’s not right.”

Teams that lose in the Open Division may, according to Schniepp, move back down for state playoff consideration in boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball only.